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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 4 January 2016

Quicken 2016 for Mac 3.0.3 — In November 2015, Intuit released Quicken 2016 for Mac (version 3.0) with a couple of handy new features — the capability to pay bills directly within Quicken as well as transfer funds between different accounts from within your bank. Intuit notes that bill payment is available only if you have Quicken Bill Pay (Windows) or if your bank offers Bill Pay with Quicken (Windows or Mac). Additionally, Intuit offers free phone support for Quicken 2016 (Monday through Friday from 5 AM through 5 PM PST, though online chat is available 24 hours a day).

During the festive period, Intuit released Quicken 2016 for Mac 3.0.3 with a number of fixes for the personal accounting software. The update resolves an issue where sending a Direct Connect Bill Pay payment could show an error, fixes a bug where opening a Quicken 2015 file in Quicken 2016 could show duplicate transactions in Direct Connect accounts that support Bill Pay, and rectifies a problem with new accounts that caused Quicken to recalculate the opening balance adjustment if transactions were added with the same date as the date on which the initial download occurred. Note that the Mac App Store edition is currently stuck at version 3.0.1.
($74.99 new, free update, release notes, 10.10+)

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PDFpen and PDFpenPro 7.3.4 — Smile has released version 7.3.3 of PDFpen and PDFpenPro, adding support for using the Services menu for selected text and single images. The PDF editing apps also add support for OCR of business card size documents, display page sizes in the Document Info window based on your Measurement Units preferences, and fix a bug where Correct Text could increase file size. A quick 7.3.4 update fixed a bug that caused a failure of the File > Open command when the “Always show the File Open dialog on launch” option was unchecked in General
preferences. Note that both the Mac App Store editions of PDFpen and PDFpenPro are stalled at version 7.3.3 at the moment. ($74.95/$124.95 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free updates, 53.1/53.8 MB, release notes, 10.10+)

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DEVONthink/DEVONnote 2.8.8 — DEVONtechnologies has updated all three editions of DEVONthink (Personal, Pro, and Pro Office) to version 2.8.8 with improved integration with Tinderbox (see “Tinderbox 6.4,” 1 December 2015). The update enables you to paste multiple copied notes (including backlinks and tags) from Tinderbox to DEVONthink, and they appear as plain or rich text notes depending on the pasted contents. The three DEVONthink editions also receive several bug fixes for users running OS X 10.11 El Capitan, including an issue with dragging multiple
email messages to the Sorter, a couple of bugs related to Clip to DEVONthink, and an issue where footers and headers were flipped when printing Web views.

The three DEVONthink apps and DEVONnote also now add newly created groups to the recent destinations, improve VoiceOver support, fix a bug where smart groups named without alphanumeric characters couldn’t be created, and address a problem with inserting an image into an RTF document right after another attachment. (All updates are free. DEVONthink Pro Office, $149.95 new, release notes; DEVONthink Professional, $79.95 new, release notes; DEVONthink Personal,
$49.95 new, release notes; DEVONnote, $24.95 new, release notes; 25 percent discount for TidBITS members on all editions of DEVONthink and DEVONnote. 10.7.5+)

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Pixelmator 3.4.2 — The Pixelmator Team has released Pixelmator 3.4.1 with smoother gradients in 16-bit images, sharper effect previews in the Effects Browser, and improved support for 16-bit Photoshop images. The image editing app also keeps the colors the same within the crop marquee (they were previously slightly lightened compared to the rest of the image), ensures the correct name and shortcut are shown in the tooltip when hovering over an effect name in the Effects Browser, fixes a bug that filled the corners of several effect thumbnails with random colors in OS X 10.11 El Capitan, and resolves a crash that occurred when
using the Gradient Tool in 10.9 Mavericks. ($29.99 new from the Mac App Store, free update, 46.7 MB, release notes, 10.9.5+)

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Tweetbot 2.3 — Tapbots has released Tweetbot 2.3 with a switch to using CloudKit as the syncing engine for the popular Twitter client. Tapbots promises this switch will bring faster, more consistent synchronization between your Mac and iOS devices, as well as pave the road for new features in future releases. In order for the new syncing engine to work, you must turn on iCloud Drive, as well as update Tweetbot for iOS to version 4.2 or later. ($9.99 new from the Mac App Store,
free update, 11.5 MB, 10.10+)

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Carbon Copy Cloner 4.1.6 — Bombich Software released Carbon Copy Cloner 4.1.5 with a fix for a hang caused by behavior introduced by the OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan update (see also “Apple Releases OS X 10.11.1 to Fix Microsoft Office 2016 Crashes,” 21 October 2015). The backup utility is now more deliberate in unmounting destination volumes at the end of a backup task should Spotlight deny the unmount request, works around an El Capitan bug that could occasionally lead to crashes on launch, and adds the capability to accept a blank
password when accessing NAS volumes. Shortly after this release, Bombich Software updated Carbon Copy Cloner to version 4.1.6 to fix a crash introduced in version 4.1.5 that could occur when trying to select a folder or disk image on a network volume as the destination. ($39.99 new, 12.1 MB, release notes, 10.8+)

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ChronoSync 4.6.5 — Econ Technologies has released ChronoSync 4.6.5 with two new major inclusion and exclusion options — “Root level only” and “Auto-exclude new items.” The Root level option enables you to copy files and folders designated from a folder of aliases, but the option will copy aliases deeper in the folder hierarchy only as aliases. The Auto-exclude option excludes any new files or folders from being backed up or synchronized (learn more about these features at this Econ tech note).

The synchronization and backup app also improves its “file not found” error handling, adds Allow SmartScan and Aggressive Mode options to the removable media target options sheet, fixes a bug that prevented archive handling from being temporarily disabled when restoring a file from the archive, fixes a problem that occurred when renaming files on certain NAS devices, and updates online help. (Free update, $49.99 new for ChronoSync with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, 29 MB, release notes, 10.8+)

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Dropbox 3.12.6 — Dropbox has updated its eponymous file synchronization app to version 3.12.5 with added functionality for the Badge (which appears on any Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file saved in your Dropbox folder). You can now view if the document is shared, change sharing permissions, and email the file directly from the Badge. Additionally, Dropbox 3.12.5 improves comment notifications, improves the user interface for the Tray Popup, reduces memory usage, and fixes a bug preventing some users with two accounts linked from being able to sign out. A tiny 3.12.6 update works around a connection issue for users in
Oman but has no other changes. Dropbox updates should install automatically. (Free, 45.9 MB, release notes, 10.6+)

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Evernote 6.3 — Evernote has released version 6.3 of its eponymous information management app with a change to using the Command-Delete keyboard shortcut to delete notes to help prevent unwanted note deletion (bringing equivalency with the Finder keyboard shortcut for deleting files). The update also improves visual and stability performance in OS X 10.11 El Capitan, fixes an issue where font information was lost when copying from Evernote, improves tag auto-complete menu performance, and fixes an issue where URLs for Web-clipped notes wouldn’t appear. (Free from Evernote or the Mac App Store, 51.6 MB, release notes, 10.9+)

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Typinator 6.8 — Ergonis has released Typinator 6.8 with new markers for calendar week (ISO and U.S. numbering) and for the numeric weekday. The text expansion tool also ensures that changes caused by Dropbox synchronization now become effective immediately, fixes an issue where parts of an abbreviation were left in certain iTunes fields, improves the structure of some submenus in the markers pop-up menu, works around insertion and cursor positioning issues when smart dashes or smart quotes are enabled, and improves handling of nonstandard line breaks in expansions. (€24.99 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 7.0 MB, release notes, 10.6.8+)

Read/post comments about Typinator 6.8.

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